TRACES OF TERROR: THE FUGITIVE

TRACES OF TERROR: THE FUGITIVE; Search Starts for Man Who Said He Sold ID's to Hijackers

By ROBERT HANLEY

Published: August 1, 2002

PATERSON, N.J., July 31—
The suspected leader of a fake document ring, who sold false identifications to two of the Sept. 11 hijackers, disappeared early this week as detectives were making final plans to arrest him, the authorities said today.

A fugitive warrant for the suspect, Mohamed El-Atriss, 45, was drafted here late this afternoon and police departments around the country will be notified by computer that he is wanted on 28 charges of making and distributing fraudulent documents, the Passaic County Sheriff, Jerry Speziale, said.

Sheriff's detectives who raided Mr. El-Atriss's offices here and in Elizabeth and his home in Union Township, N.J., early today expected to arrest him at one of the locations, Sheriff Speziale said. But they were told at Mr. El-Atriss's office on Market Street in downtown Paterson that he was away on business. Ten minutes before the raid, Mr. El-Atriss telephoned an office worker there, the sheriff said.

''He said he'd be returning in a couple of days,'' the sheriff said.

The sheriff said detectives have no idea where Mr. El-Atriss is. The sheriff said he could not verify rumors that Mr. El-Atriss had gone to Egypt, where he was born.

Although Mr. El-Atriss has been charged only with violating New Jersey law, the case attracted considerable attention today when Sheriff Speziale's office disclosed that the F.B.I. was aware Mr. El-Atriss had sold fake documents to men who helped hijack planes flown into the Pentagon and the World Trade Center on Sept. 11.

A man who was aboard one of the planes that destroyed the trade center, Abdulaziz Alomari, obtained a fraudulent international driver's license from the ring, according to court documents. The second man, identified in documents as Khalid al-Midhar, had obtained a phony document called a ''United States identification card.''

None of the charges Mr. El-Atriss now faces is related to the hijackings, Sheriff Speziale said.

A spokeswoman for the F.B.I. office in Newark, Sandra Carroll, said agents had interviewed Mr. El-Atriss after Sept. 11. She said the F.B.I. had not determined that he violated any federal laws and had not sought any charges against him.

Ms. Carroll said Mr. El-Atriss had identified the two hijackers from photographs as men who obtained fraudulent papers from him before Sept. 11. But, she said, agents have not determined if Mr. El-Atriss had any prior knowledge of their plans or if he himself was part of the plot.

Lt. Robert Weston, head of the Passaic sheriff's criminal investigation squad, said detectives knew nothing about Mr. El-Atriss's involvement with the hijackers when their investigation started about four months ago. The inquiry, which ultimately involved the sheriffs of Passaic, Bergen, and Essex Counties, began after a number of motorists showed police officers fake international driver's licenses and identification cards during routine traffic stops. Some of the drivers told detectives Mr. El-Atriss had supplied the fake documents, officials said.

In late May, Mr. Speziale's office routinely notified the F.B.I. of the investigation. An F.B.I. agent then told local investigators of the bureau's earlier interview with Mr. El-Atriss, according to an affidavit accompanying an application to search Mr. El-Atriss's two offices and home.

Ms. Carroll, the F.B.I. spokeswoman, said the bureau played no role in today's raids because agents had not determined that Mr. El-Atriss violated federal laws.

Lieutenant Weston said authorities believed the ring routinely provided fake documents for as many as 18 people a day for $150 to $200 a transaction. During today's search, detectives found documents showing that he sent $29,000 to a bank in Saudi Arabia last January and February, Lieutenant Weston said. How that money was used there is a mystery, he said.